Vonage Canada wants CRTC to investigate Shaw Cable's 'VoIP tax'

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Vonage, which offers voice-over-Internet protocol services that depend on lines provided mainly by phone and cable companies like Shaw, said Tuesday that Shaw shouldn't be charging an extra fee to customers for high-priority Internet service.

"Shaw's VoIP tax is an unfair attempt to drive up the price of competing

VoIP services to protect its own high-priced service,


What is VoIP ?
Voice over IP , or a phone that runs through the internet , not through the phone lines. Very cheap , much cheaper than a regular phone through the phone lines.

The issue here is that Shaw Cable provides an internet connection. AND it provides it's own VoIP service on that internet connection. But you can use a competiter. If you pay Shaw it's "tax". A tax for it doing nothing but what you're already paying for anyways (an internet connection).

Is this fair ? No.
Is it inevitable ? Yes. Shaw , and any IP provider , dictates the terms of service , decides what you can and cannot use their network for. So yeah , they can block out VoIP from a competiter if they want.

Which sucks. And the Law on this should be changed ( up here in canada at least). Because now you're talking "bundling", the practice of selling the customer not just one service but a bunch of them , and denying the customer the ability to shop around , thus allowing you to charge anything you like for certain extra's , like an internet phone (VoIP).


It's also a moot point ?
Why ?

Cell phones are dirt cheap.
Ha ha ! Let them fight over the table scraps. Real users don't use regular phones or VoIP ! Ha ha !